Jimin of BTS Muse Album Review: Love, Fantasy, and the Freedom of Big Feelings

Jimin of K-Pop group BTS began his first solo album FACE, released in 2023, with a jaunty carnival tune which quickly unraveled into a sinister whirl. Over the course of five tracks, he faced off with enemies masquerading as friends as well as his own self-induced nightmares in order to set himself free. It was a sleek, operatic debut with large-scale orchestras and choreography, perfectly suited to BTS’ lithe main dancer’s evocative, soaring voice.

Fifteen months later, teaser clips dropped for Jimin’s next album, MUSE. Whether he lay in a set of blue flowers or posed for the camera, he was each time emotionless under the yellow stage light. An eerie buzzing overlay each scene, drawing the viewer into the unease of waiting for stage direction. What would rouse Jimin from such a state? Surely, Jimin would do something with his hard-earned symbolic freedom and renewed convictions?

The seven tracks of MUSE converge to give one assured answer: Jimin will move for love, in love. The album begins with “Rebirth (Intro),” as sparkling high notes shimmer over a pulsating heartbeat to mimic the flutters of initial attraction. He sings of his desire to draw near to his love interest by taking one step at a time.

The marching band instrumental of “Interlude: Showtime” follows, signifying the sprightly and consistent nature of his movements. Jimin’s ringing voice welcomes us to “today’s show” before segueing naturally into the pre-release track “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco).” In the music video, we see that Jimin is finally animated under those yellow stage lights, for he has a cast to play with and an audience to perform for. South-Korean rapper Loco features, playfully capturing the key message with his own flair.

BIGHIT Music

Jimin continues to draw nearer in “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco),” and in “Slow Dance (feat. Sofia Carson),” encourages a lover to reciprocate so that they’re cheek-to-cheek and feeling their shared tempo. Jimin and Sofia Carson’s voices intertwine, melodious and sensuous, setting the tone for the long night ahead. In “Be Mine,” he’s movin’, comin’, lovin’ on the Afrobeats-inspired beat, metaphorically dancing under the moonlight. The lead single “Who” then captures a sense of yearning in the midst of an urgent, ever-moving search to find The One.

To close is a sentimental promise in “Closer Than This,” originally released ten days after his mandatory military enlistment in December 2023. Here, he cannot be with his fans physically, but promises to return to them soon.

Through the various genres, features, and intended audiences of MUSE, the message is clear: his beloved is always on his mind, and he’ll always move towards them.

It’s endearing to think that this message is his “truth untold,” for it’s a character trait so central to Jimin’s being. For one, consider how he’s supported his BTS members in their individual promotions.

He flew to Chicago for J-Hope’s 70-minute Jack in the Box set at Lollapalooza. He was behind the scenes for RM’s Indigo live show. Not only was he a special guest for SUGA’s D-DAY Tour in Seoul, he also watched the concert in Newark, New Jersey. He visited V as he promoted Layover on music shows and joined him for his solo fanmeet Vicnic. He arrived at Jungkook’s doorstep with V in tow the evening of Golden’s release to celebrate the drop. (Who knows what he’ll get up to for Jin’s upcoming album?)

Or, we can consider who Jimin has collaborated with for his solo endeavors. They tend to be musicians he admires and has a strong personal relationship with. His features on “With You” (2022) and “Vibe” (2023) were with dear friend Ha Sung-woon and role model Taeyang, respectively. Jimin’s self-compositions “Promise” (2018) and “Christmas Love” (2020) were produced by Slow Rabbit, an in-house producer of his company HYBE, and additional support was requested of his bandmate RM.

Most crucially, Jimin’s key team for both solo albums have also been in-house producers: Pdogg, GHSTLOOP, and EVAN. Together with their frontman Jimin, the four of them make up the “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco),” a playful joke amongst them that stuck. The smeraldo is a fictional flower created for the Bangtan Universe to symbolize a truth untold, so it provides a warm recognition of how they’ve made it possible for Jimin to deliver his inner feelings to the world through music.

Narratively speaking, one may have expected the easy vibrance of MUSE to be a precursor to the unravelling of FACE. Even BTS’ own music followed this cycle, with Love Yourself: Her (2017) and Map of the Soul: Persona (2019) portraying a buoyant rush that dissolves into the shadows of Love Yourself: Tear (2018) and Map of the Soul: 7 (2020).

And yet, Jimin has flipped this tendency on its head. The carnival atmosphere of “Interlude: Showtime” and “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)” are innocently exuberant, unmarred by the darkening soundscape of FACE which preceded it. Why? There is a three-pronged answer.

BIGHIT Music

The first part of this answer is straightforward: it’s the order he felt these emotions. Jimin had “thrown up” all the ugliness that he’d recently experienced and projected it into FACE, and in doing so, was left jubilant by the addictive nature of music-making. We may be listening to “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)” sixteen months after “Set Me Free, Pt. 2,” but Jimin shares that production for it started immediately afterwards.

The second part of this answer is more complex. MUSE lays out a series of soundscapes and emotions Jimin most wants to be identified with. In Jimin’s Production Diary, he expressed his satisfaction in FACE’s hidden track, “Letter (Dear. ARMY),” because it was pure and lacked pretense, much like him.

Not only does this description hark back to “Christmas Love” (2020), it anticipates much of the lyrics of MUSE. Furthermore, in Jimin’s “Thanks To”, he wrote how he filled MUSE with his desire to once again feel the many varied emotions he had experienced with ARMY, for he’s currently in a period where he often lacks feeling. MUSE may not be where he’s at, but it’s where he wants to be.

The third part of this answer leans into another of MUSE’s inspirations: The Beatles’ innovative and classic 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In a period where the rock band was exhausted by their tour schedule and external pressure, Paul McCartney conceptualized an album which would play like a live performance by their alter egos, the fictional band of the album’s name. At its release, Sgt. Pepper was celebrated as a counter-cultural art piece which purposefully tilted towards joy and optimism in the face of a rocky world order. It also legitimized popular music and gave greater credit to the role of producer.